Meet Flo.
Flo is running late to work...again. It's the second time this week and surely not to be the last—or is it?
Little does Flo know, tonight is unlike any other night at the seedy underground bar she serves cocktails at on the weekends. Tonight, her whole life will unfold right before her eyes.
Join Flo and a rotating cast of characters, as Flo takes you on a journey through three impactful chapters of her life, told chronologically and ascendingly across three very different worlds. Audience members will have the opportunity to be a part of Flo's story and make decisions that could completely change the course of the night.
Three Story uses a unique form of storytelling that blends traditional theatre with wildly weird interactive elements in an immersive space. With a unique, partially improvised format, audience members can watch the story unfold in front of them or become a part of it. As with life, no two experiences will be the same.
Rich with taboo themes like psychedelic drugs, polyamory, and death, I’m hoping to remove some of the stigma around experiencing (or even talking about) these themes. I often find staged theatre to feel a bit impersonal and immersive theatre too absurd to really connect with the content. By taking a more traditional narrative into an immersive setting, I want to give audience members the chance to really feel like they’re a part of the story before asking them to explore more complex themes.
At the core of the three hour story is young and frantic Flo, played by Ali Haas, who we first meet when she shows up late for her shift at the neon-lit dive bar that is the backdrop for the first act. Over the next two acts, we get to immerse ourselves in some of Flo’s most formative experiences related to coming-of-age in a city that seems to constantly be shifting.
Directing the show is actor / director / choreographer Jenny McAllister, who has been putting on her own immersive theatre events as the long-standing Artistic Director of 13th Floor. For Three Story, McAllister brought in a cast of eleven actors to play sixteen unique characters throughout several hours of both scripted and improvised performances.
The rest of the crew is made up of immersive theatre veterans, many belonging to the same underground party communities that have been helping keep weird art alive in the Bay Area.
“San Francisco has a pretty vibrant underground immersive scene, where seasoned professionals and self-taught amateurs come together as a community to create and collaborate,” says the shows theatrics lead, Adalyn Naka.
“We’re highly experimental, using surrealism and satire to explore social commentary—and when we create something, we pour everything we've got into making it an unforgettable experience,” she continues.
Video captured by an audience member from one of the Act II vignettes (6 min), in which an emo teen marionette named Rascal sings and dances in their bedroom about not wanting to grow up. The vignette features original music by Dan Gerbarg and puppet design and live performance by Roxie Black.
Due to the unique and improvisational format of Three Story, recording the whole narrative would have been impossible. However, if you’d like to dive into the depths of a media bin, you can see a lot of video content from the two performances here.